If you’ve been to your local CVS recently, you may have noticed some subtle changes in the store. It’s been one year since CVS announced it was removing cigarettes and tobacco products from its stores. This year, CVS continues its focus on enhanced health initiatives, bringing healthier food choices in focus and helping customers improve their in-store shopping experiences for health and beauty.
CVS brought its Blogger #CVSMeetUps event to Chicago to share some of the new in-store happenings with us! A group of local bloggers spent the day with CVS’ crew, who shared details of everything that’s going on in the world of CVS.
The day began with a tour of the CVS/pharmacy location at 2427 W. Chicago Ave on the edge of Chicago’s Ukranian Village neighborhood. We learned that while in the past, many CVS stores looked “the same,” CVS has now diversified its stores, customizing many of them to fit the local market area.
This Chicago CVS location has a large frozen food department to serve local shoppers in an area of the city where the closest supermarket is about two miles away. There are many quick and easy meal options here — everything from frozen individual and family-size entrees to pizzas. We were told that CVS has realized a “one-size-fits-all” strategy isn’t always best in specialized markets.
Did you know that CVS has eleven specialty stores in Florida called “CVS/pharmacy Y Mas”? (I didn’t!) These CVS “and more” stores offer product lines specially adapted for the Hispanic market in Miami. CVS plans to continue to evolve its stores to fit local market areas and needs.
What kinds of changes can you look for at your local CVS stores? CVS is rolling out improved signage in the healthcare aisles to make it easier to find specific categories of products. Instead of a general category like “cold remedies” or “women’s health,” products are sorted into deeper sub-categories with slim green shelf signage to make it even easier to find what you’re looking for.
Have you noticed how many healthy snacks there are at CVS now? Of course, CVS still sells plenty of candy, cookies, chips and crackers, but as the CVS crew explained, “in some stores, you may have to head deeper into the store to find them.” Indeed, in this store, many varieties of nuts, beef jerky, trail mix, dried fruit and other healthier snack choices were prominently displayed near the front of the store. CVS is very proud of its Gold Emblem Abound line of natural and organic foods, which continues to be extremely popular with shoppers.
New signage helps shoppers easily spot the kinds of foods and beverages they’re looking for based on a color-coded chart system — you may have noticed it in this week’s new CVS ad too.
80% of CVS/pharmacy shoppers are women, and the beauty department is getting some upgrades to reflect this too. Similar to the signage in the healthcare aisles, the beauty aisles are getting more specific category designations, like the ones shown above for clear skin solutions and natural skincare. As we toured the store, our CVS crew pointed out some Sephora-like features in the cosmetic aisles — black-and-white shelving and signage, with multiple mirrors so guests can hold makeup shades up and see how they work with their skin tone.
CVS treated all of the bloggers to lunch after our in-store update, and we each received a bag of CVS goodies featuring CVS’ new healthier in-store initiatives. Here’s what was in my bag:
My kids immediately nabbed the dried banana and strawberry crisps. Vitamins are always appreciated around the Cataldo house, and the Gold Emblem Abound line of nut bars are tasty, rivaling pricier brands like Kind.
I was especially fascinated by the CVS Health Manuka Honey wound pads. According to the package, these honey-infused pads are effective at helping heal skin that needs to stay moist while healing — think skin burns, and “road rash” style cuts and scrapes. Honey is a natural healer, and these are able to both absorb moisture or donate moisture to the wound, depending on what it needs to balance the healing process while soothing it.
I’m also interested in trying these Gold Emblem gummy bears! I have to confess, I am a little weirded out by things containing animal gelatin (yes, I have food and taste issues that I’ve blogged about before..!) These gummy bears have no artificial flavors, colors, gluten, gelatin, fat and GMOs.
The next time you head to your local CVS/pharmacy, take a look and see if you can spot the new signage, displays, and products as CVS continues to evolve and improve its offerings for shoppers.
kate114 says
Gummy bears made in France? That is different, at least to me-these are one of the few junk foods I don’t eat!